I didn't realize it was 46 hours when I bought it - gets into lots of detail about daily life, the economy and how the markets work - actually how he developed them - he is a really interesting person - was a true innovator!! It's amazing what he built and accomplished in his life

Highly detailed, yet accessible look at Vanderbilt and his times, and while it certainly comes across as inclusive of all perspectives, I got the sense of a thin haze of bias I couldn't quite put my finger on.

For a history buff, this was an excellent book. It combined the personal and business life of Vanderbilt perfectly, and spun them together with the political and historical context. It was clearly well-researched, and flew counter to other historical analyses of Vanderbilt based on Stiles' more complete study of his subject. Deakins' performance could be a bit monotone at times, but he seemed to come more alive as the biography progressed.

Dude, after reading Titan on John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegies autobio, and The Billionaire Who Wasn't, this was next up on the list. The men back in that time who built Americas infrastructure were men of iron. To be able to document that much about mans life shows he truly lived---- from working at a port to getting into the steamboat carrier business, to the rail lines in the end, he was most definitely a Tycoon.

A great read to follow up with is What Would the Rockefellars do showing what the JDR family did differently than the Commodors family to ensure their wealth lasted into future generations,,,,,,,, if I had to relisten to this, I prob would, just see how much a man can accomplish and even more so that it doesn't mean your wealth will carry on if you don't plan for it to long after you are there to manage it----

This books shows the evolution of out financial system in a very personal way by showing its human perspectives by the people involved that yes we have heard of in history texts but this reveals very real of how each change came about using real transactions and real companies